"What a fantastic but grueling two days of rugged and psychotic conditions that actually went unsailed a lot of the time because the wind was blowing too hard for the equipment that we all had. 5.0’s were huge just to give an idea of what we were facing and that is what the smallest sails were for the most part. In fact, a modern 4.0-4.4 would have been the preferable size for just about everyone as we got hit by afternoon stretches on both afternoons whereby there was a solid 50-knots gusting to 60 for literally two hours at a time.

Be jesus... it was nuts and the lid literally flew off the top with the wind gods. Unfortunately the angle we were asking for was too much today (130-140) as big chop developed on the course making it very difficult to go fast.

Survival was the name of the game sometimes but breaking the record further requires calculated control, power and finesse, which is simply impossible to achieve in unison with the Mistral. The wind is far too irregular and twitchy to be super fast, fast enough for 50. We are looking for the big SE for that but it is clear that all the sailors were pretty happy with what we got and simply making it through the experience without injury!